Palpatine alternate ending
by TheForceisright
Summary: The destruction of the second death star began the end of the Empire but not all is as it seems. The Force moves in mysterious ways and although balance has been achieved in the Force the darkside sleeps, waiting to be awakened, to finish what was started...


Darkside power

Darth Sidious, caught up in the moment of killing the young Jedi offspring of Anakin Skywalker, suddenly engulfed in his own force lightning and being hoisted above Vader's head, never felt more powerful. As lighting sprang from his fingertips and ripped all thru his body and that of his apprentice, he could feel the life draining from Vader. Then the feeling of falling. But the power! The power of the dark side of the force was never stronger in this Master of the Sith. As he gained control of his fall he released the lightning in a blinding flash and thru the force, landed on a hatch to a maintenance tunnel on the side of the shaft just meters away from the reactor. He knew he had little time as his surge in power allowed him to see the near future more clearly and he saw the coming destruction of this new battle station. Time to move and regroup. His thoughts turned to his hatred of the young Jedi, and the sentiment of Vader that allowed the survival of the offspring of Skywalker. His vision showed him the return of the Jedi thru Luke Skywalker. But as he well knew, the future was always in motion, flows and eddys in the Force changed with the will and movements of those using the Force. His hatred burned now within him as he made his way thru the bowels of the station and he vowed to hunt Skywalker down and destroy him. To change that future he saw thru the Force into his own will and outcome. His hate and anger seemed to transform him, he ripped his way thru bulkheads and locked doors as if they were made of paper .He'd used the Force to place himself in the perfect location knowing that even with calling upon all the Force he possesed thru the darkside he could not leave the station in time. Feeling it happening before it began he reached out all around him with the power of the darkside. Then it happened. And just as soon as the station rocked from the explosion he fore pushed all around him, holding it for as long as he could stand to do so, creating a force bubble that held the bulkheads and floor and ceilings intact for meters all around him.

If it were not for the strength and wisdom of the force within him, Darth Sidious would not have survived the explosion. The heat and pressure moved against the force that surrounded him deep inside the death star, twisting metal and buckling floors. Maybe it was the force or sheer hate that kept this one large chunk of the battle station intact as it flung thru space toward an ocean on the forest moon of Endor. Burning thru it's thick atmosphere and crashing into the shallow sea and settling on the bottom. There, An intact piece of the second death star, half the size of a star destroyer lay submerged under only 300 meters of water. Palpatine awoke in the darkness, bleeding and broken and burned. His injuries would have killed an ordinary man, even a Jedi Knight. But Palpatine was no ordinary man, nor a Jedi. He was a Master Sith lord of darkness, and his hatred sustained him...

Sheev Palpatine, lay dying inside the dark recesses of the death star or what was left of it. The first few days while his strength was fueled by fury, the dark lord of the Sith had tapped into a power he'd never reached before. He could "see" thru the force that his death star was gone and that he lay entombed in a large section of it deep under water. His injuries prevented him from moving about very much and the blood loss was weakening him. He also felt other survivors that were trapped there with him. He began to focus on them to come to him and find him, for that would be the only way to survive. The force had sustained him thus far but tapping into such hate and fury had cost him his strength. The dark side of the force always cost more and he knew that.

The first to find him was a storm trooper who used the visuals in his helmet to help him see to navigate the twisted corridors. Palpatine wasted no time in draining the life force from him, a talent that dark side users could use. This gave him some strength back and helped the healing processes but again, at a cost. It seemed the more he used the force the weaker Palatine got, yet Sidious, grew stronger. He knew that Palpatine would die, and that Sidious would remain. He was deformed, partly from the force lightning and the fury of hate and from the explosion and crash. Part of his face was gone and his side. If he were to somehow survive this he knew he had to let Palpatine die. He was determined to carry on, but no matter what was going on in the galaxy above, Palpatine would never again be a part of it.

Days went by before anyone else found him. Two storm troopers and a female low ranking officer. This time he let them take him to a makeshift med bay where all the other survivors were. They didn't recognize him and he didn't want them to, he didn't speak to any of them but listened and learned of all that had happened, that they were able to get an emergency beacon activated and had made contact with an imperial search team. That the rebels had claimed victory over the empire but fighting continued. Good, he thought, damaged but not defeated. Yet the emperor was dead, and his henchman, Darth Vader. That name now brought new anger to Sidious. The cowardly Sith lord that betrayed him and died doing so! He expected at some point for Vader to attempt to overthrow him, it was the way of the Sith, the rule of two, but to destroy the master and die in the process was an end to the Sith. As the fury welled up inside him, he began to drain the life force out of the two injured souls next to him, then the unmasked trooper who had knelt down to check on them. Sidious began to grow in strength, he tried to stand but found it difficult with his frail frame, but stood he managed. The force lightning moved slowly around the room like smoke and drew out the life force of each individual there. Strength had returned and as he left the med bay area he sealed it and left the corpses behind.

The search team sent a crew of trooper divers down to the wreckage. There were two troopers and Sidious alive that were brought to the surface and put on board the transport. Sidious was in a trance of meditation and appeared to be in a coma. No one knew him or questioned who he was. The transport radioed in that they had found survivors in a large section of the death star and gave it's location. The commander was instructed to take the survivors to the star destroyer Inquisitor and return their search for more victims and survivors. The pilot set a coarse for the Inquisitor but they never arrived.

Emperor Palpatine had left many things hidden around the galaxy in the event the future didn't turn out the way he intended. In certain hidden dark places of the galaxy he would create vaults that held ancient Sith knowledge, in some he left certain Jedi artifacts and in others, a few others, he had built Sith meditation chambers. He had also planted secret codes in all in service imperial fleet droids, codes made in the ancient Sith language of incantations so that he would be able to control any droid by ways of the dark side of the force. One such droid was on board the transport taking him and the two other survivors to the Inquisitor. Sidious motioned for the droid to come closer. It was a protocol droid, silver in color with imperial markings that looked like tattoos. As the droid leaned in Sidious spoke in the ancient tongue and the droid snapped straight, it's eyes turned red and said, "I am forever at your service my master". "Good " Sidious spoke, " instruct the pilot to change coarse to the Mustafar system, if he refuses, kill him and the commander and set course yourself." One of the other survivors looked at Sidious in disbelief, a trooper without his helmet, his eyes widened as he thought he recognized the emperor, but soon fell shut as Sidious pulled his life force from him and let him slump to the floor. Moments later a blaster fired from the cockpit and both the pilot and commander lay dead on the floor. The droid, whom Sidious named as D1, took the controls and reprogrammed the flight to the Mustafar system.

Mustafar was a hot desolate place still used for mining but controlled by the empire. Years ago Palpatine allowed Vader to build a temple for himself, a castle, on top of the ruins of an ancient Sith temple. It was built for Vader to use, placed nearby where he lost his legs and arm and was so badly burned. It was equipped with a special bacta tank and Sith meditaion chamber. Sidious remembered the reason he had Vader stay there to meditate and grow his anger toward the Jedi. To kill off his old self, to remind him that only Anakin Skywalker had suffered this place and that Darth Vader would grow more powerful in the dark side here.

Although Sidious realized that ultimately he had failed to groom his apprentice, that everything he did to try rid Vader of Anakin, that in the end it was Anakin that resurged to destroy him. Vader had disappointed him at times but he fulfilled his destiny as apprentice to Sidious. Now was the time to begin to avenge himself. He would use the force to heal his broken body here in this chamber. Then would begin his quest to hunt down Luke Skywalker and kill him.

Sith meditation chambers were designed to tap in to the dark side of the force and conform to its user. With D1's assistance, Sidious made some modifications to help sustain his life for a long duration in the chamber. Hooked up to a feeding tube and breathing apparatus he planned to submerge himself in the force via a trance/coma. Sidious could have used the bacta tank to heal but chose to use the dark side of the force instead. With D1 keeping watch, Sidious remained in the chamber for months. He would awaken a new man, dark, deformed and wise.


End file.
